Contaminating Food to Save Money

Sep 30, 2019

More than three million tons of sewage sludge is used to fertilize farms and other lands in the U.S., including sports fields and backyard gardens. But much of this sludge is contaminated with chemicals known as PFAS.

PFAS are known to increase the risk of cancer and cause damage to the liver and thyroid. They stay in whatever they contaminate for a very long time.

These chemicals are absorbed by crops and end up in our food. This year the FDA reported finding substantial levels of PFAS in samples of grocery store meats, dairy products, seafood and even chocolate cake. In Maine, a dairy farm was forced to shut down after sludge spread on the land was linked to high levels of PFAS in milk. The farmers even showed high levels of these chemicals in their blood.

Most of the PFAS in sewage sludge comes from industrial wastewater. DuPont, 3M, and other chemical companies use PFAS to manufacture products like Teflon, and then dump their contaminated wastewater into local water treatment plants. But these municipal treatment plants don’t remove the PFAS before they sell their sludge to farmers.

Companies save money, city and town officials save money, while we end up with poisonous chemicals in our homes, our foods and our bodies.

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